ARGUING for changes in the Freedom of Information Bill, the Fianna Fail spokesman on public service reform, Mr Dick Roche, told of a young couple who had been frustrated at every turn by the "legal mafia" in their seven-year quest for justice.
Mr Roche said the courts were in an almighty mess. He believed people should have full access to information in relation to the administration of the courts. The Bill was not clear on this issue.
The couple to whom he referred had been frustrated by solicitors and most recently by the Bar Council. Mr Roche said he had sought in the past to highlight the plight of these people. "But the gentlemen in the Law Library don't pay much attention to us here and the senior wigs on the benches don't pay an awful lot of attention to us here either."
He was critical of the proposed delay in bringing certain bodies within the scope of the Bill's provisions. The public service had had more than two years to get ready for the necessary adjustments.
It was a fundamental error that local authorities and health boards had not been brought within the legislation's ambit immediately, he said.
Giving notice of his party's intention to amend the Bill, Mr Roche said it would be demanding more radicalism than the Minister had shown.
Introducing the measure, which passed the second stage in the Seanad, the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, said it would effectively turn the Official Secrets Act on its head. It contained a mandate to the public service to provide the public with access to information to the greatest possible extent consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy. At the very heart of the legislation was the creation of a new right for every person to access information held about them by a public body. Most exemptions in the measure were discretionary rather than mandatory.
On delays in the courts on the scheduling of cases, the Minister said if there was a need to look at specific administrative issues, this could be done.